Overview
Mempool.space is a Bitcoin blockchain explorer API that focuses on real-time transaction fee estimation and mempool (pending transaction pool) analytics. It provides recommended fee rates in sat/vByte so developers can help users set appropriate transaction fees for timely confirmation. No API key or authentication is needed, making it one of the most accessible Bitcoin APIs for beginners.
Beginner Tip
Use the /api/v1/fees/recommended endpoint to instantly get the current Bitcoin fee recommendation — no sign-up required, just call the URL and use the "fastestFee" value to set an appropriate fee for urgent transactions.
Measurement Record
What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.
- Request
- GET https://mempool.space/api/v1/fees/recommended
- Result
- HTTP 200 · application/json · 74 bytes
- Response time
- 46 ms (median of 3) · fastest 27 ms
- Transport
- TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Sectigo Limited
- Browser CORS
- Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
- Served by
- nginx
- Recorded
- 2026-08-10
Fields Returned
Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.
| Field | Type | Value received |
|---|---|---|
| fastestFee | integer | 4 |
| halfHourFee | integer | 3 |
| hourFee | integer | 1 |
| economyFee | integer | 1 |
| minimumFee | integer | 1 |
Captured Response
Captured from a real request to https://mempool.space/api/v1/fees/recommended on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.
{
"fastestFee": 4,
"halfHourFee": 3,
"hourFee": 1,
"economyFee": 1,
"minimumFee": 1
} Field Reference
fastestFee Recommended fee in sat/vByte to get confirmed in the next block (~10 minutes). halfHourFee Fee rate in sat/vByte for confirmation within approximately 30 minutes. hourFee Fee rate in sat/vByte for confirmation within approximately 1 hour. economyFee Lower-priority fee rate in sat/vByte; confirmation may take several hours. minimumFee Minimum fee rate accepted by the network; transactions below this are likely rejected. Implementation Example
Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.
const url = "https://mempool.space/api";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
How This API Fails
We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.
Returned an HTML error page rather than JSON — worth knowing if your client assumes every response can be parsed as JSON.
Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Measured Score Breakdown
Live HTTP request to the API endpoint
Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026
Technical Specifications
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